Distress signal.

Vengaboy Posts : 299 Join date : 2012-04-07

A large distress signal is emitted from a space station in Sector 1, a sector of many former human republics. The transmitter is the old abandoned super-miner, VENERAN STATE'S SERVICE THE THOR'S PICKAXE. It drifts in the void of asteroids, many dents in its hull show that it's had a few close encounters with them. If one would get close enough, a woman's calm voice sent on all frequencies would say,"Hello?.. I'm waiting. Hello? Are you there?" Repeated on a track.

The station's bridge gives off an interesting technology reading. The hangars seem to be left open.

Scrub Posts : 39 Join date : 2012-02-20

At quite a distance from the station, a bright blue field of energy begins to crackle and grow, after a few seconds the glowing would reach it's peak before exploding into a blinding flash, a large Templar ship appearing in its place. Captain Orion commands the cruiser 'Creators Gaze', apparently having been told about the signal broadcast from one of the scout ships and deciding to check it out for himself. Upon getting right up to the asteroid belt he notices no way of getting the Cruiser through without damage, opting instead to take a band of Warriors with him on a smaller craft, as the drop-ship departs it quickly navigates through the rocks, narrowly avoiding getting scrapped along the edges a few times.

After getting relatively close to the station Orion speaks in a Captains usual stern tone "Open up radio channels, hail the station.", after receiving the strange message over and over again with no change he speaks once more after a moment of confusion "Ugh...This doesn't look good...switch all non-essential systems off and move into that open hangar there." he says as he points to the scan readings right before the majority of the crafts systems are turned off. Slowly the drop-ship heads toward the hangar, quietly landing before the hatch opens and the Captain and troops pour out and look around. Besides the Captain there are ten Warriors, five with what looks like very bulky sub-machine guns and five carrying a sword and shield.

(I'll be back in an hour or so.)

Vengaboy Posts : 299 Join date : 2012-04-07

The hangars do not close once they enter, and they would need vacuum-sealed suits to exit. It seems the artificial gravity generator has long since been deactivated, as they hop around and float. The large hangar contains many smaller ships, most of them being ore collecting ships. They look untouched, almost like they've been in same position for decades. They would see an exit to the hangar ahead. An airlock, a sealed one. However, to the side there is an unscrewed panel with a valve built into the wall.

It reads in English,"In case of electromagnetic failure, use valve to manually seal and open airlock. WARNING: If airlock is not functional then gradual decompression will not be available.

Step 1, Open Airlock door. Leave the airlock doors an inch apart for a moment to safely decompress airlock. When decompressed, enter.

Step 2, enter airlock. Seal hangar bay door behind you.

Step 3, Open station door, leaving the doors an inch apart for a moment to dispel the vacuum.

Step 4, Enter station and seal station airlock door behind you."

Luckily for the Templar, there is an illustration of what to do as well, with a little stick man, a valve, and an airlock room. The valves are hard to turn, and do so very slow, as the manual process of making something airtight is very arduous.

Scrub Posts : 39 Join date : 2012-02-20

Orion takes a cautious note of the hangar doors not closing despite their entrance, thankfully the Templar suits have the option to become vacuum-sealed, though they must attach armored air tanks onto the backs of their suits to do so. Due to the disabled scanners they were not aware of the zero gravity enviroment however, the first few Warriors that left the drop-ship are left floating around for awhile while the others go back into the craft to pick up some zero-gravity jets and stabilisers, after another minute or so of preparation the Captain and Warriors move over to the airlock.

While they have difficulty reading the instructions, having minimal knowledge of true English the illustration helps them enough, the Captain himself turning the valves as needed due to his augmented strength making the task easier. The Warriors quickly set up a small defensive area around the Captain as he seals the final valve, reading the values in his helmet visor to check if this place has gravity and air, aswell as the Warriors looking around where they are now.

Vengaboy Posts : 299 Join date : 2012-04-07

They enter a long, dark corridor, lit by only their lights. It is less pristine than the hangar. Air vent grilles, floor panels, dust particles, and miscellaneous items float in the air. They've been untouched for a long time however, as they are not moving or rotating or anything of the like. They are completely motionless in the air. As they make their way down the hall, they bump into these objects, causing them to spin on their axis or float in the direction the Templar make. The corridor is long, and at the end of it, there are two hallways that go either way.

There is a sign that reads in English and shows illustrations of what the areas are. To the left it points,

"Asteroid tractor beam control.
Ore storage.
Generator.
Maintenance.
Mining-craft bay."

To the right it points,

"Living quarters.
Medical Bay/Cryostat Chambers.
Mess.
Hydroponics.
Security/Brig.
Officer's Quarters.
Bridge."

Scrub Posts : 39 Join date : 2012-02-20

Most of the originally stalwart, 'unbreakable' Templar seem very cautious, almost frightened of the motionless darkness that surrounds them, though Orion remains calm yet alert. As they slowly advance down the hall, moving and brushing away every piece of floating debris, keeping their weapons ready and aimed at any possible place hostiles could emerge from, they eventually come across the two hallways, Orion takes a moment to read through every word as his guards make another defensive semi-circle around him. As he finishes the last word it doesn't take long for him to know where they should be heading next, signalling for his men to follow him left, speaking through a supressed radio channel "Keep alert, Templar, we're heading toward the generator, see if there's any juice left."

Vengaboy Posts : 299 Join date : 2012-04-07

They turn left, and make their way down the corridor. For a while, nothing is in the hallways. Until they come upon a miner's exo-helmet, turned away from them. It is motionless in the air as with the other objects. If they were to turn it, they would see the visor is cracked. An eerie image. They make their way down the hall, and on their left is a thick window, maybe 3-4 feet thick. On the other side it shows the mining-craft hangar bay, with the bay doors left wide open. They can see the same situation as when they landed, pristine craft.

Further down the hall, a half sealed door. The right side seems to be extended all the way to the mid point of the doorway, but the left appears to have jammed a long time ago. It reads next to it "MAINTENANCE." It's not what they're looking however, and they pass by it. If they were to flash a light into it, they would catch a glimpse of tangles of wires, some console equipment, and electronic devices floating in air.

Finally they come to the room they're looking for, the Generator. The door is wide open. As they enter, they would see a main console between two large reactors, surrounded by other smaller computers. Rolling chairs are scattered about the room, floating upside down, to the side, some of them even standing erect on the ceiling.

Scrub Posts : 39 Join date : 2012-02-20

While their main objective is the generator room which they hope is actually intact, they do take the time to carefully moniter their surroundings as they move along the corridor, while it takes awhile at first one of the Warriors does eventually notice the helmet floating ideally in the air, perhaps despite against his best judgement one of the soldiers turns the helmet around though he doesn't seem to phased by the cracked visor, taking a short time to examine it atleast. Orion also sees the untouched mining-crafts on the other side of the thick window, making a small mental plan to perhaps give each soldier the task of taking a ship each, assuming the exploration goes well enough, afterall the Templar certainly need the extra ships.

As they also pass by the damaged Maintenance Bay door a couple troops would indeed take a quick look inside, glancing between all of the floating console pieces and wires aswell as contemplating between eachother whether or not to ask the Captain if they could salvage some of the electronic equipment though they decide not to.

The cautious group eventually comes across the wide open doors to their goal, the Generator Room. Slowly and carefully flying in using their jets, Orion immediatly moves toward the main computer while the others look around the room, looking out for any hostiles or other threats. The Captain attempts to turn on the main console, looking for a way to turn on the generators.

Vengaboy Posts : 299 Join date : 2012-04-07

The console flickers on, and a light on top of it blinks on and off. It seems to be an ancient type of computer system.

">EMERGENCY POWER ACTIVATED.
>STARTING...
>...
>...
>WARNING:GENERATORS NONFUNCTIONAL... TROUBLESHOOTING.
>GENERATORS ARE NOT PRODUCING POWER BECAUSE OF A LACK OF FUEL IN YIRRIDIUM REACTORS.
WARNING: YIRRIDIUM FUEL STORAGE AT 00.00%, REMAINING FUEL STORAGE WOULD PROVIDE 0 TERRA YEARS, 00 MONTHS, 00 DAYS, 00 MINUTES, 00 SECONDS OF POWER...
>INITIATING EMERGENCY RESPONSE...
>BACK-UP CAPACITOR ROSTER ACCESSED, LISTING CAPACITORS...
>CAPACITOR 1, DEPLETED.
>CAPACITOR 2, DEPLETED.
>CAPACITOR 3, DEPLETED.
>CAPACITOR 4, DEPLETED.
>CAPACITOR 5, 100% CHARGE.
>AVAILABLE CAPACITORS: 5.
>ACTIVATE CAPACITOR? Y/N..."

Assuming Orion would enter Y, there is a loud churning beneath their feet, and the floor vibrates. They hear loud clicks from the left side of the hallway. Suddenly light flushes the doorway, and the generator room is lit. The clicking sound traverses back down the way they came. The computer screen reads,

">0 TERRAN YEARS, 00 MONTHS, 00 DAYS, 02 HOURS, 04 MINUTES, 55 SECONDS OF POWER."

Scrub Posts : 39 Join date : 2012-02-20

Captain Orion rubs the side of his finger against the bottom part of his helmet as he thinks, pressing buttons until the console eventually turns on, much to his surprise. As he watches the computer spew out words over the screen he almost cannot read properly, he eventually gets the message and indeed he would press 'Y'. Immediately him and his men spring into action as the churning and vibrations occur, even more-so when the clicking noises appear from the side of the hall and even after the noises stop and the lights flicker on they do not leave their stance until another half-minute has gone by.

Orion breaths a small sigh of relief and orders his men to keep alert as he checks back to the screen, despite the knowledge that there was only a single back-up capacitor he curses under his breath as he notices the time he has until the power dies out again, he quickly signals to his men to follow him again, moving out of the generator room in a quicker but still cautious pace "Now that's sorted out, let's get to the Bridge and figure out what the fuck happened here..."

Vengaboy Posts : 299 Join date : 2012-04-07

As they go back from where they came, its even eerier than before. They see things they didn't catch with the lights off. Rusty-brown stains on the walls, identifiable as human blood. As they make their way back, they go through the life supporting section.

The living quarters bay is first in the hall, a blood-stained, rusted axe lodged into it's control panel, and "CONDEMNED: DO NOT OPEN" spray painted onto it. They make their way down the hall. The medical bay is next, and the doors are sealed shut, but they can look in from the window. There are clothed skeletons, strapped into surgical tables. A skeleton with a segment of its skull missing, wearing a doctors white coat, floats in the middle. In the corner there is a large blood stain on the wall. A gun remains in eternal stillness next to the doctor.

The cryo room is just next, and the cryo chambers are dead. There is no obscuration of view from the usual cryo freeze, as they ran out of power ages ago. The thick glass in the chambers show skeletons in various different jumpsuit uniforms. Spray painted onto the window is "HELP US." The door to cryo seems sealed from the other side.

As they make their way down the hall to Mess, the doors are sealed. Spray painted over it is,"FOOD SUPPLY INFECTED." Just beyond mess is hydroponics, the doors are sealed as well. The blinds on the windows are drawn. Spray painted on the door is,"FARM INFECTED." Next is security, a red/orange slab of metal of a door. Outside the door are many skeletons, fragments of bone floating around as well. They seem to have been shot.

The Officer's quarters further down the hall are sealed as well. Finally, they come to the bridge. The large bridge doors are sealed, but the communications panel next to the controls blinks.

Scrub Posts : 39 Join date : 2012-02-20

For a moment after exiting the Generator room, Orion feels a sense of ease due to the power being (mostly) back on-line, however this is very abruptly dashed as he and his men quite quickly notice the sudden change in atmosphere, the dried up blood stains over the walls immediately giving the Warriors back their sense of dread. Carefully the squad enters the life support section, not taking long to see the spray paint and axe lodged into the control panel, most of them taking pictures of what evidence they can find using their helmets.

As they reach the medical bay they start to try and pry the doors open, but are cut short as the sight of mangled skeletons comes into view, some of the Templar recoiling at the mere vision of it. Orion contemplates over what could have happened here, perhaps a Terrorist attack? An inside job?, his suspicions only worsen as they come across the Cryo Chambers, the troops trying their best to ignore the writing for now, however one Warrior apparently noticed the door to the Cryo Chambers sealing behind them, his attempts to open it being futile "The doors are stuck Captain, we're locked in!".

Orion suddenly realizes the weight of the situation before them, soon the power would cut out again. As they continue moving forward he activates a communications link with the 'Creators Gaze' Cruiser, "Control, this is Orion, we're locked in here and we need support-..." he cuts his speech short as they notice the writing on the Mess Hall and Hydroponics door, eventually talking into it again "...Bring flamethrowers...". They quickly reach the door to the bridge, paying little notice toward the Security or Officers Quarters, after manually trying to open the doors fails, Orion tries to work the control panel.

Outside the Station, the crew of the Creators Gaze readies another drop-ship, lead by a Veteran with 8 Warriors, four of which are equipped with heavy flamethrowers. The craft sets out toward the station, though is far from reaching it yet.

Vengaboy Posts : 299 Join date : 2012-04-07

The control panel crackles and plays a recording of a woman's grave voice,"This is.. Captain.. Captain Thomas of the VSS Thor's Pickaxe. I guess if you're hearing this I might already be dead, I just activated the distress signal and.. my food rations are low. 2 pre-sealed packages of.. peanut butter, and whatever synthesized stuff this is. Maybe I can make it last a few weeks, but.. I digress. The miners found an alien ship in the asteroid field. It was a remarkable find. Tried to contact home about it but the metals in these damned asteroids give us no good reception.

And.. when we pulled it into the hangar, everyone cheered. But I didn't. I had a feeling. Just.. a very bad feeling. The miners cracked the thing open, and I remember it. I saw my death before I even knew it. This high pitched hiss as the gas escaped the ship. We had already killed ourselves. Damn fools. But we didn't even think about it. Inside were the skeletons of three.. I don't know how to explain it. I guess the best word is, crustacean-like life forms. Big claws, and what not. But they were just hardened shell. Their insides were.. gone. That's when Doc said he didn't like it either. He had the ship decontaminated, and triple-filtered the vents in the mining hangar. He took one of the crustaceans in.. said something about donating it to science. And he decontaminated it, and told the miners to dump the rest. Huge things.. Stored it in a special chamber in cryo.. we were gonna.. give it to science. We were gonna be on the front page of some fucking.. magazine. Winning awards and what not. They found this.. alien technology too. Took it to the bridge.. it's still here. It's like.. I can't explain it. It almost looks like a weapon but it's not. That's not important right now though.

Then the miners.. they started getting sick. We uh.. we joked that they probably sneezed in each other's helmets and switched them one day. But.. god did we not know. Just some headaches and minor cold symptoms.. They got worse. Skin started to itch. Said they were on fire. They started to vomit.. the next day. White veins started to appear on their skin. And after that.. they were ramming their heads against the wall. Insane. Batshit insane. Trying to go at the veins on their skin with knives. Doc wasn't telling me something.. He had them quarantined and had everyone wear face masks. No one was allowed to get into hydro or the back of mess hall without clearance from me. I had the alien ship spaced.

They died. Those two guys. A.. It was sickening. Fungi sprouted from the back of their neck. It released.. spores all inside their quarantine capsules. You couldn't see a thing, it was white as snow with spores. We spaced them. That's when we started sending the emergency distress calls. And then people just.. broke up into groups. The infection spread. The fungi ate all our vegetables, and killed our artificial meats. Hydroponics was just.. spread full of these huge white mushrooms.. that glow so brightly in the dark. It was beautiful in a.. terrifying sort of way. Then more people started to come down with it. We had kept the miner's true fate a secret so no one knew. But they still knew what was ahead of them. The insanity.

Then they formed. They came from the vents. These.. fucking bags of gas! These floating pink fungi bags. If they touched you.. you were infected. If you shot it.. it just released spores. You just had to run. You just.. had to run.. We made makeshift flame throwers, from a.. Hehe.. aerosol sprays and lighters.. Oh god that was just something. It worked kind of well.. I guess. We cleared those fucking abominations up.. And.. then when you thought nothing could get worse.. An engineer in art-grav just went crazy and smashed his fists against the controls. We lost gravity. Then more bad news.

They broke out. Our friends.. no.. the crazies we put in the living area.. They broke out. Power failure for a moment.. the doors all open automatically when that happens. They sprung out. And.. I just barely got in here. I saw them get slaughtered at security before the door slammed on them.. I saw.. doc.. Oh god.. Doc... I saw it all on the cameras.

I guess.. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. This.. I can't.. I can't do this.

The code to the door is 1979.. I'm.. I'm sorry."

A loud gunshot is heard, and the recording continues to play as silent static.

"I am the Law" Posts : 406 Join date : 2012-02-04

No activity by nations yet, here are the final logs.

Gambit wrote:: ...It's far too late to intervene, the Darts disable the pursuing fighters where they could easily destroy them. Their energy bolts impact the fighters and seem to short out the electronics rather than burn holes through the metal. The pursuit ends as the Dart fighters scramble in the field, making for the cruiser.

The Templar fighters bump around in space, waiting to be picked up.

Blitz wrote:: The Aturor slink away from the bumbling Templars and the unaware Nichi fleet. The secrets artifact and the corpse, lost to an unknown race, will remain a secret to the Templar. Orion's efforts have gone in vain, as he floats through space, waiting to be picked up.

Col Awesome wrote:: Hours later, Orion sits in his Command Chair back aboard the Cruiser, staring out into the void of space as they head away from the station. Eventually he turns to his Comms Officer and speaks, deeply. "Send a hail to the Atonement...Now!", he says as he slams his fist into the arm of the chair, the officer nods shakingly and scrambles to open up a radio link with a nearby Battle-cruiser.

Orion sighs as a winged helmet comes on screen, followed by the rest of the figure sitting in a similar but larger and more regal Command seat, the person wears a thick suit of armor similar to the rest of the Templar however is dotted with gold emblems and designs as-well as a massive, red cape falling from his back past the bottom of the chair. The person speaks in a grizzled voice, but this is still sounding like a radio transmission due to the helmet, "Orion, I've detected quite a few anomalies around your ship as you carried out the exploration, were you successful in finding anything?", the Captain dips his head slowly and replies in an angry tone of voice, "I was not, sir...we found some unique artifacts, possible of Creator origin but....we were intercepted by some enemy fighters...", the suited person responds in a perhaps unsurprised manner, "Pirates, Orion?".

The Captain looks back up to the screen proper now, pressing some buttons on the arm of his chair, apparently sending the data they did retrieve over to the ship they're speaking to, "No Commander...It was the Aturor.", the Commander remains silent before letting out a sigh of his own "This data you've sent me is useful enough, Orion, we'll be back here soon enough."